1 A re we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?

2 Y ou are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

3 b eing manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 S uch confidence we have through Christ toward God.

5 N ot that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

6 w ho also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 B ut if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,

8 h ow will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

9 F or if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

10 F or indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.

11 F or if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

12 T herefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,

13 a nd are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.

14 B ut their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.

15 B ut to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;

16 b ut whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

17 N ow the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

18 B ut we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.